286 West-Indianischer Historien AnderTheil

Title

286 West-Indianischer Historien AnderTheil

View shows a battle between Nicaraguan natives against the Spaniards.

ca. 1628

Artist

Bry, de - Merian (1528-1598)

In 1631, Matthäus Merian and Johann Ludwig Gottfried published Historia Antipodum, a heavily abridged, single-volume version of Theodor De Bry’s 14-part America series. After De Bry’s death, his sons continued the project. Merian, a skilled engraver, later married De Bry’s daughter and collaborated with Gottfried. The Historia Antipodum reorganized numerous travel accounts into three chapters covering nature, exploration, and recent colonial developments. Merian and Gottfried significantly reworked the content, merging reports and integrating illustrations into the text. Their depiction of the natural world and Indigenous cultures—drawing in part on José de Acosta’s writings—was particularly influential. The book stands as one of the most ambitious works of early modern travel literature.

Historical Description

On his fourth voyage, Christopher Columbus landed in July 1502 on the island of Guanaja, which belongs to the Honduran Islas de la Bahía. From the mouth of the Río Coco, the Cabo Gracias a Dios, he followed the coast of Nicaragua and anchored at the mouth of the Río San Juan to withstand heavy storms. From Panama, the conquistador Pedrarias Dávila undertook raids in 1519 to Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Although the immediate booty was relatively high, it became clear in the course of the conquest that in the long run the source of wealth lay in people. In the 1520s the area was colonized by Spain to start the encomienda. The first Spanish colonial cities were founded in Nicaragua near the Pacific coast. In 1539, Diego Machuca discovered the Río San Juan as a waterway between the Caribbean and Lake Nicaragua. In 1551, the Spanish chronicler Francisco López de Gómara said: “You only have to make a firm decision to make the passage and it can be carried out. As soon as there is no lack of will, there will also be no lack of funds ”. But the Spanish King Felipe II saw God's creation in the land bridge between the two seas, which man is not entitled to improve. Therefore the plan for an interoceanic Nicaragua Canal has not been pursued for the time being. For a long time, Spanish colonial rule was limited to the Pacific coast and its hinterland on Lake Nicaragua and the smaller Lake Managua. The Caribbean coast (Miskito coast), which was separated from the rest of the country by mountainous and impassable regions and was inhabited by the Miskito indigenous, came under the influence of Great Britain for a long time from Jamaica with the territory of today's Belize. In 1821, the General Capitanate of Guatemala, to which Nicaragua belonged, proclaimed its independence from the Spanish crown. The Jacobin cap of the French Revolution still adorns his flag over the five volcanoes of the country. Two years later, it became the United Provinces of Central America, from which the Central American Federation emerged, to which Nicaragua also included Honduras, Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador.